The battery finally drained completely with a running time of 21h 46m 35s. I never expected the CF swap would make such a huge difference. BTW, everything played during the running time was in FLAC.

So with the CF swap what's your guy's normal running time for a full charge?

I have re-rockboxed my main unit...the 128GB one...have been putting flac files on it and comparing them to my 320kbps mp3's...and I have to tell you...there are some songs that definitely sound better than the flac's. Maybe it's my ears...or the system...but I'm seriously not getting any awe inspiring differences here...

I'm a little underwhelmed...but I am liking the RB thing better now...but I have some questions..is it ok to PM you D?

What they didn't say is which one has better quality. The less expensive one? LOL

Quote:

Originally Posted by icefalkon

I have re-rockboxed my main unit...the 128GB one...have been putting flac files on it and comparing them to my 320kbps mp3's...and I have to tell you...there are some songs that definitely sound better than the flac's. Maybe it's my ears...or the system...but I'm seriously not getting any awe inspiring differences here...

I'm a little underwhelmed...but I am liking the RB thing better now...but I have some questions..is it ok to PM you D?

Your finding is interesting about the MP3's sound better than the FLAC's. This shouldn't be unless the FLAC's are not the true lossless.

My apologies for the long post. After keeping track of this thread for quite a while to see how various attempts at upgrading iPods have gone. If anyone is interested, this is how my attempt at upgrading my 80GB iPod Video went. It was purchased off eBay specifically to do this.

My original iPod was a 160GB iPod 6G (fatback) that for which, it is my understanding, will not work for this. Hence the purchase of the 80GB iPod Video. If I get the time and inclination I may attempt to see if it can be done.

In all it took about three hours to do this, including trial and error to figure out what was wrong as well as test out Rockbox. I did this slowly as I wanted as few issues as possible after sinking a small fortune (to me anyway) into doing this (It was a Christmas present to myself)

I have on older 13" MacBook that also boots into Windows via VMWare

Parts I used for the upgrade are listed below (all obtained from Amazon with exception to the aforementioned 80GB iPod Video)
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1) As I use a Macbook and have everything in iTunes, I formatted the mSATA for Mac OSX Extended (Journaled) using the disk utility. (If I used Windows than I would have formatted FAT32.)

2) Once the drive was formatted I inserted it into the ZIF adapter and connected it to the iPod.

3) I connected the iPod to the Macbook and crossed my fingers. The iPod was recognized and iTunes requested to restore it. I had a lot of trouble getting this done as I kept getting an iTunes error that I had to connect the iPod to a Firewire cable to do the restore (I do not have one)

4) After a few attempts of reformatting the mSATA, thinking I did this all wrong and having the same error come up numerous times I gave it a shot on the Windows side and formatted the mSATA as FAT32. I had the same issue. iTunes recognized the iPod but would not restore it.

5) I gave up on the Windows side and went back to the Mac. For the last time I formatted the mSATA to be compatible with the Mac. This time I figured that maybe the drive connection was not being made correctly. I made sure to connect the drive cable to the mSATA as best I could.

6) I reconnected the iPod to iTunes and voila, the iPod was recognized and reformatted. I know have a 238GB mSATA iPod. I am not sure why not 240GB or such, but I am happy that it works.

Attempt at Rockbox
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I am not into Rockbox, as iTunes serves my needs fine, however I thought I would give it a try for those that may be interested. I was unable to get it to work, but nonetheless, this is what I did.

1) Connected my newly minted iPod to the Windows side and turned it into a Windows iPod

2) I installed Rockbox. There were no issues here, the install went fine

3) Upon restarting the iPod I got to the Rockbox boot screen. I thought I may have gotten lucky. Unfortunately, I was presented with a screen showing me a "sata-22" error. At least that is what I thought I saw (damn bifocals) before I clicked through the error message

4) Without thinking to take a pictures I click through the prompts and a got nowhere. I figured I would reboot the iPod again and document it this time, possible for someone that knows what they are doing. However, upon rebooting (I did this a few times) I never got the same error message after the boot screen. I was always given a "sata -11" error. Maybe I misread the "sata -22" error as this time I took off the bifocals (much better).

5) I rebooted the iPod one last time and put it into diagnostic mode and took a picture of that (Again for what ever use it may be). Strangely enough even-though the mSATA was formatted in both OSX and Windows as a 256GB SSD, the diagnostic mode seems to indicate that there is only a 127GB drive in the iPod. (Maybe that is where the problem with Rokbox is?)

6) I gave up any more attempts at getting Rockbox to work, so I uninstalled it. (Again no errors there). I reconnected the iPod to the Mac and set it up again as a Mac iPod to work with iTunes as it more than suits my needs. Maybe someday I'll give Rockbox another try if anyone figure out why it does not work. Till then I am content with the upgrade and can fit my library with some room to spare.

6) I reconnected the iPod to iTunes and voila, the iPod was recognized and reformatted. I know have a 238GB mSATA iPod. I am not sure why not 240GB or such, but I am happy that it works.

It's because of the difference between how bytes are counted on the hard drive (1 megabyte is 1000 x 1000 bytes) and how bytes are counted by the filesystem (1 megabyte is 1024 x 1024 bytes). You haven't lost any storage space, sounds like things are working the way they should.

Thank you cmstastny for the detailed post of your efforts! I'm amassing the parts and pieces necessary to do this same thing to my 5th gen, along with the DIYmod, but had not purchased the msata adapter, yet. I was waiting to hear what luck others had with installing a msata drive.

I'm torn between being able to use Rockbox, or sticking with the Apple firmware. I'd really like to be able to play flac files, but then again, I can't use my car adapter (USA*SPEC) with the Rockbox firmware. Yes, I'm aware that I can dual-boot, but it's just more of a hassle than it's worth if I can't play flac files.

I see there's a couple threads in the Rockbox forums on this issue... perhaps if more of us chime in, it will raise awareness of this issue with some of the more seasoned devs, and they'll look into it.

cmstastny: Thanks for the update on your results with the mSATA. Well as far as I know there are three forum members including yourself who have so far tried the same ZIF adapter and a Crucial M4 mSATA drive (64GB, 128GB, 256GB respectively). In all cases the swapped drive worked with the apple OF but not rockbox or not yet reported working with RB.

I am waiting to receive a different adapter (see this post) and will try a different mSATA drive. Just give it another shot to see if any luck with the rockbox.

cmstastny: Thanks for the update on your results with the mSATA. Well as far as I know there are three forum members including yourself who have so far tried the same ZIF adapter and a Crucial M4 mSATA drive (64GB, 128GB, 256GB respectively). In all cases the swapped drive worked with the apple OF but not rockbox or not yet reported working with RB.

I am waiting to receive a different adapter (see this post) and will try a different mSATA drive. Just give it another shot to see if any luck with the rockbox.

Have you considered how that particular adapter puts the mSATA drive on the opposite side of the board from the ZIF connector (unlike all the rest of the adapters where they're on the same side), and what potential problems (if any) this might present?

I was thinking that if heat was an issue with the mSATA, one could always shim the backside of the adapter to press the drive up against the back cover, and use a bit of thermal paste between them to help wick heat out of the drive.

Have you considered how that particular adapter puts the mSATA drive on the opposite side of the board from the ZIF connector (unlike all the rest of the adapters where they're on the same side), and what potential problems (if any) this might present?

I was thinking that if heat was an issue with the mSATA, one could always shim the backside of the adapter to press the drive up against the back cover, and use a bit of thermal paste between them to help wick heat out of the drive.

No idea about any potential problems at this point and just want to try something different. If it doesn't work, I will bring my own lunch for a week. :)

Edit: No rockbox no deal to me. The last resort is to use a 128GB CF card (if you don't want to spend the money for a 256GB Super Talent ZIF) which is proven working with rockbox.

It could be true but I think these torshiba HDD's are pretty reliable for normal use, including a few drops to floor. Never have one of these HDD's failed on me even after a few drops to the floor with hard falls. Of course a 240GB HDD cost only $90 today and you can easily replace it without breaking your bank.

With that said, the ipod with the HDD swapped for a SSD weighs much lighter which is good for portability.